Giffgaff customer are crying out for better data speeds so while this is good reality is they need to do much more. 4g speeds are less than 2Mb when other companies are giving 15+ on 3G. Tesco mobile part owned by the same company gives their customers 25Mb. Giffgaff simply don't care and have been losing customers all year because of the speeds plus special deals by the likes of plusnet

Once upon a time GiffGaff were a breath of fresh air in a world of 18/24mth contracts...nowadays they really are bad value compared to the 30 day rolling sim only contracts out there.

not really sure why anyone stays with GiffGaff now.....

If you use less than 125 minutes ( and hardly use data ) , then even 3's standard pay as you go tariff would be cheaper ( 3p per minute , 2p per text and 1p per Mb data - plus you get 150Mb free when you top up = so just do £5 top ups ).
Unlike a goodybag you would only be paying for what you use, so if you only made 100 minutes of calls you would only pay £3

this is great. i have no issues with giff gaff, they do exactly what i need.

giffgaff USED TO be the best. nowadays? - voted cold.

Terrible deal wow.Plusnet 1000mins 5000text 1500mb £5-95.

i got banned from giffgaff for using 4gb of data on my mobile on a unlimited package!! absolute joke of a provider

offer (new rates) now live!

Thats what I done years ago, got my fingers burnt when I went 12m sim only EE last year when the network started falling to bits here, thankfully they admitted the whole area was affected by a hardware upgrade needed with no known fix date. I've recently moved to a 30 day Vodafone sim and I have 4G indoors :smile:

I am just thankful EE was straight up, we have all been there fighting to get out because of network signal/performance changes at the same account address.

Do it! I am away to go through retentions at Vodafone at the end of this month, if I don't get what I want I will be off to Tello (Three) unlimited's & 100MB £8, bargain :smile::laughing:

Ditto, £10 4Gb unlimited calls and texts with much better speed with plusnet on rolling 30 day. Well chuffed with moving to plusnet, although think we might see the demise of GiffGaff if they cannot improve their network and value.

I just looked out there in the contract market and have seen an O2 1gb unlimited minutes, text refurb iPhone Se 16gb for £15/mth with £15 upfront. Ok the data is low, and it is a refurb (used) but I am currently paying for the £10/mth 1gb goody bag alone. Maybe the best bet is to get the 399 iPhone 64se unlocked from johnlewis and just jump about on the 30day deals.

Sim only and buying phones outright

our whole family has left due to poor speeds and value. moved over to another company

For 7.50 per month, 30 day rolling contract, i get 2gb 4g data, 1000 mins and unlimited texts, stay clear of gift gaff

Seriously poor value, pointless, get far more with plusnet

[quote=moneysavingkitten]So nothing good for lower usage users again then. What was it they put their data prices up by again for airtime credits users, 500% if I recall correctly? I don't think they will ever make up for that.
Agree speeds aren't good and coverage is pretty shocking too.
I so wish another company would do free network to network calls on PAYG, me and my entire family would leave so fast.[/quote]


Try White

Just tested my EE 4G speed 135Mbps down, 26.25 Up

And no not in the middle of a large City....that is in rural Leicestershire....tested on an old Galaxylaxy Note 4

Hope you don't ever plan on leaving virgin, absolute nightmare to get out of a 30 day ROLLLING contract. I'm in the process now and they've told me 'your request to cancel your plan was not processed correctly' and you have to wait 30 days from when you choose to cancel. So it's basically a contract

Plusnet mobile ee is quite giod down here

That same £15pm could get you a 30 Day rolling sim with VirginMobile that comes with 20Gb 4G data and 5000 minutes....data rollover included.

They're good for cheap direct overseas calls direct from mobile without routing to another company

With Giff Naff you do get the following:
1) No customer care - no one is care about your issues;
2) No internet speed at all, example airports, everyone on any network get 4G with at least 15Mbps speed, Giff get Naff - in my experience I am not even get 1 Mbps;
3) Giff Naff get the lowest priority for internet speed, not true 4G experience;
4) Members don't control anything as advertised is opposite;
only one positive point is: by spending time on their forum and reply to other users you get the some money.

Yeah if we all run it at off peak times, we will get great download speeds, its when you try and use it during the day you will be lucky to get 1-2mb download - that is a more realistic figure for everyone. I like the concept of giffgaff but unfortunately their throttling is ruining it

I feel I have to defend giffgaff here. I've just returned to giffgaff because you can't beat the value they offer on their goodybags. Also, as far as download speeds are concerned, there are a lot of factors that come into play. I've recently changed my handset which has helped enormously. I live in Warrington, Cheshire and I ran a speedtest this morning and got 28mbps download and 18mbps upload on giffgaff, not too bad at all. I also have another handset on three and got around 10mbps.

I remember at the start when they had free data and 8p min they where great. When they monetised it they pushed call rates 10 12 then 15p min. The final nail in the coffin is classic o2 is 5p min to recap gg started at 8p and o2 was 30 now gg is 15 and o2 is 5 this is supposed to be a budget network. Even now I live in the sticks we've finally got 4g Vodafone o2 but they're **** compared to Ee and three. I carry a dangle now osprey and camera case in summer

Another ex Giffgaff customer here - their data was truly dreadful. I moved to 02 proper and what a difference - data was actually usable.

Now with EE - fantastic data speeds - fantastic coverage. Highly recommended.

Go with Three. They have a 12 month sim only offer for £15 a month, comes with 600mins and 8GB data. Their 3G/4G is fast. Go through Quidco, get £50 cash back works out at £10.83 a month. Call Three and tell them you want to put a max bill limit of £5, so the bill is never more than £16.

edit - 30 day rolling contract with virgin media seems the best way to go. For £15 you get 5000mins, Unlimited texts & 20GB data.

What does everyone do on there phones that require fast download speeds? We use giffgaff predominantly because of the free giffgaff to giffgaff calls and txt's. Family members all on giffgaff. Does anyone else offer this? I have seen better packages for myself (i'm on the £10 goodybag) but a couple of family members are on the £5 goodybag and seems hard to beat this.

It's worked out significantly more expensive for me. £10 used to last me just under 3 months, which is when I would need to top up again to keep free calls. Using all the balance on occasional data usage. Now I am lucky if it lasts me a week.

I just don't use giffgaff for data at all any more. If I need to use data, I stick in a Three SIM. Faster, with hugely better coverage and costs me absolutely nothing!

They changed them to 5p a mb. Previously it was 20p from 1mb to 20mb, up to 1mb was charged proportionately, ie half a mb was 10p. Over 20 mb and it was 20p a mb. So arguably they've put their prices both up AND down, depending on your usage! Up to 4mb a day it's now cheaper, over 4-24mb more expensive, 24mb + now cheaper

[quote=moneysavingkitten]So nothing good for lower usage users again then. What was it they put their data prices up by again for airtime credits users, 500% if I recall correctly? I don't think they will ever make up for that.
Agree speeds aren't good and coverage is pretty shocking too.
I so wish another company would do free network to network calls on PAYG, me and my entire family would leave so fast.[/quote]


Try White

I was with giffgaff for about 6 months before having to change, the data speeds were just too damn slow. Looking at the prices now I don't think I made a mistake to EE after being with them for a year I'm paying £11.99 a mknths to get unlimited mins and texts as well as 20gb of data

[quote=moneysavingkitten]So nothing good for lower usage users again then. What was it they put their data prices up by again for airtime credits users, 500% if I recall correctly? I don't think they will ever make up for that.
Agree speeds aren't good and coverage is pretty shocking too.
I so wish another company would do free network to network calls on PAYG, me and my entire family would leave so fast.[/quote]


Try White

Been having this problem a lot, get missed calls but phone never rings. What does 'cycles of network mean', do you know what is happening to cause this?

Appreciate the suggestion, thank you :smiley: but really don't want a 30 day contract.

Thanks, I'll have a look :smiley:

It's a £12 bundle, not a £13 bundle...and you're right...it changed in January last year. Source: I just checked my bills.

Regardless of when they did it, they still did it.

[quote=moneysavingkitten]So nothing good for lower usage users again then. What was it they put their data prices up by again for airtime credits users, 500% if I recall correctly? I don't think they will ever make up for that.
Agree speeds aren't good and coverage is pretty shocking too.
I so wish another company would do free network to network calls on PAYG, me and my entire family would leave so fast.[/quote]


Try White

As others have said you use about double the data on Giff Gaff , so beware the relative low price.

I joined giffgaff a year ago and the 13 quid bundle option for my has only ever give 2gb data so not sure where you are getting your facts.
Maybe at one point they offered more but not in the last year

I wish they'd bring back the cheaper Unlimited Data bundle options :disappointed: not the best speeds but it was still the best deal around at the time. Other providers are much more competitive now.

Further to what ashman33 said earlier in this thread, even if I buy a 3G Goodybag bundle my signal goes between 3G and 4G all the time (in the city centre). As I said before, buying the slightly more expensive 4G Goodybag bundle gives me worse speeds/connection than 3G!

If GiffGaff are still making amazing profits, they need to invest in their loyal customers - as I've been with them around 7 years and I'm tempted to move on now. Hopefully someone from GiffGaff with some clout is reading this thread.

Some marketing ploy. They reduced all of these goody bags by 1gb data allowance about 6 or 7 months back, apparently to accommodate a shift from 3G to 4G.
Now they're giving it back.
I was on the competitive £12 goodybag for about 2 years, which had a 3gb allowance and then had to move to the £15 after getting charged through the nose for additional data in the first month they made the change.

They're no longer competitive and this is too little too late in my book.
The only reason I haven't already left them is sheer laziness! :-P

it's all about coverage for me. I've tried most networks and O2 is best for my local area in my experience. I am using GG and from my experience I've had no issues or any problems with lag/speed. Customer service with EE and Vodafone were a joke and I know where I am and quite satisfied with GG....but understand people have to speak as they find

Giffgaff were exceptional as a money saving option when smartphones were still emerging, I was with them for around 3 years.

Then the service became ****-poor and it didn't help that the online network had waves and waves of apologists stepping forward to defend them for terrible business practices - these were customers on the support forums of which I used to frequent whist a customer myself.

I left and haven't looked back, they now can't compete with 'proper' networks sim only deals, it irks me that people put up with them in 2017 with a 2012 business model.

Getting rid of unlimited data was the beginning of the end.

Voted cold as ice.

no email for me. still on same min and data

That's why I want to go back to them. I went with iD Mobile for a while but I remember getting much larger bills than I should have been getting. Three seem to be charging me when I get a text message from Paypal, which is quite often, so my bill is going up. It's so frustrating. There really isn't any outstanding deals in the industry. If Giffgaff had better 3G/4G speeds and better coverage, they'd be the best network provider available in my opinion.

There's no bill with giffgaff, if you dial a number that's not included in your minutes or if you run out of minutes you simply can't connect

with a contract sim you can get a nasty surprise at the end of the month, i guess this is the main reason why so many choose giffgaff over others

When giffgaff came out they were great, but aside from slow 3G/4G which I can almost forgive - try getting a signal in the countryside. It's IMPOSSIBLE. I moved to Three and Three's coverage is so much better than Giffgaff. I would love to pay less and move to Giffgaff but their coverage is woeful.

choosing 1p mobile for 1p minutes calls text and data these are cheap if they are giving you 30 pounds on every 30 spend ie 30 for all year work out at 2.50 per month .Giff Gaffcharges are far higher No Hokey Cokey

I left GG 3 years ago, due to poor data speeds, and interesting to see they are just as bad.

GiffGaff allow tethering as long as you're on a plan with a specific amount of data (ie not the "unlimited" one)

I've used giffgaff several times over the years but the data speeds are a joke. They have improved recently, but are still a fraction of the speed which I can get with every other network in my area.
These new Goodybags have come too late. There are better deals around, unless you can't get a contract.
I don't think that these new Goodybags are that great, unless you're a complete giffgaff fan and wouldn't leave them for anything (and there's quite a few giffgaff fans around - just look at their forums!)

I changed from being with EE for years, don't regret it one bit. Giffgaff signal is by far better than EE. Plus EE customer service is shocking.

we did a trial when they were 3G only and I was getting 1Mb with GG and 15Mb with Virgin, in our area coverage on 3G was patchy but recently moved to 4G with plusnet same network and get up to 25Mb, had gone from virgin to Tesco but the price of Tesco was much higher so recently changed to PlusNet.

Virgin mobile do free calls to other VM phones for all 30 day sim only contracts.

which is true but you miss a good point, they are owned by o2, its their choice to put giffgaff at the bottom of the pile in terms of speeds, Tesco Mobile a part owned o2 company and now Sky gets higher priority. The amazing thing is GG Managing Director even said in a recent finance release to GG customers that the company was making amazing profits, bringing in slightly less customers that they were losing but attrition rates were very high. When quizzed about speeds he said that the profits allowed o2 to invest in the network. All good if they actually allowed GG to have some of the actual speeds, a speed of 10% or less of what the other companies get is ridiculous in a 4G network and sadly as we see from some of the comments on here and GG own community people think that loyalty is ok when you aren't getting what the market is offering. Plenty of 30 day providers, yes with a credit check, offering much more. If GG don't change they will die a death and only the true loyal customers will want to stay. I had high hopes for the merger with 3 which got scrapped, at least they might have allowed GG more freedom, I guess it will be only time before o2 need to do something with the way PlusNet are taking over the 30 day plans.

Whats the data speed like on Virgin compared to Gift Gaff??

I am using gg for some of our phones, and for the specific usage I can't find anything better, certainly none of the suggestions in this thread.

I used to run GG for free by using their forums and by posting out SIMs which earned £1000s of quid as a recruiter. Can't be bothered now.

I'll keep doing research, but O2 are never going to allow GG to undermine their own offer, their would no be any sense in competing against itself.

Does she have Sky TV?

If so she can get a £10 sim with 1gb data and Unlimited Inclusive Calls and Texts decent price if she uses a lot of minutes

GiffGaff speeds are not set by GiffGaff, they are imposed by 02, who give their own customers priority; on my local mast (I have line of sight) on 3G I never get more than 2Mb, and until complaining directly to the 02 CEO, used to get 40Kb; but on 4G I regularly get over 50Mb.

GG data plans are no longer competitive, but if you make a lot of overseas calls, they are still pretty cheap; the cheapest if you want cheap UK calls as well. The only way to get cheaper is to go with a VOIP service - with all the call quality issues that brings.

Left giffgaff a while ago when they introduced the £12 bundle
I needed a new phone and worked it out that on a 24 month contract for £20 a month im only paying £192 extra and i get a phone

so i got a galaxy s6; 500 mins / txts / 2 gb data
sold my s6 for 250 and brought a g4 for 150
and complained to EE after 3 months and got it to unlimited mins/txts and 8gb data for £21 a month (after a £12 discount added)
and its 4gee+ so i get 50-60mbps down all day with the best coverage across the uk.

Giffgaff kept sneaking up prices and slowing the speeds.

After this my deal works out to be £454 for 2 years; apposed to £288 on giffgaff but with the added benifit of a phone.
when my contract is up for renewal i cannot see me been able to keep such a good deal like i have now,

​Couldn't agree more Gifford gaff is a thing of the past and as o2 only bought one license from the 4g spectrum auction I don't see things getting any better.

GG customer dont want more data, they want better speed.. I've been with the a couple of times in the past and their speed is absolute rubbish.

My giffgaff sim used to be fine but now switches between 3G and 4g both of which show poor connection. Also recently it cycles off the network completely. This means I miss calls and messages. It could be the phone but I suspect it is the network.

Do the majors limit access for those running off their networks where they have sold capacity ? eg O2 users will get network priority over giffgaff

I still dislike giffgaff from the days of "truly unlimited data", they cut me and my father off on seperate occasions for using too much. Customer service is practically zero.

Just moved on from GG. Was paying £20 for 6GB of data with crappy speeds. Can do better!

If you use less than 125 minutes ( and hardly use data ) , then even 3's standard pay as you go tariff would be cheaper ( 3p per minute , 2p per text and 1p per Mb data - plus you get 150Mb free when you top up = so just do £5 top ups ).
Unlike a goodybag you would only be paying for what you use, so if you only made 100 minutes of calls you would only pay £3

Can't get credit, fixed costs, O2 signal strength, strong value at the low-usage end, UK customer support for a few reasons?

That's mental, tested my tesco 4g sim and get 24mbps down speed (from fast.com so not sure what the up is).

£12.50 sim only 12month 6gb 4g data and 750 mins / 5000 texts.

I concur what everyone else mentioned. After being with Giffgaff for close to 8 years I finally had enough of the massive drop in quality. Woeful speeds, shockingly bad coverage in some areas and high tethering policing really put me off. Combine that with their consistent lack of value for money over the past 3-4 years and I'm not surprised their customers are leaving in droves.

So nothing good for lower usage users again then. What was it they put their data prices up by again for airtime credits users, 500% if I recall correctly? I don't think they will ever make up for that.

Agree speeds aren't good and coverage is pretty shocking too.

I so wish another company would do free network to network calls on PAYG, me and my entire family would leave so fast.

Plusnet is 30 day contract! Yes its a credit check but you are not tied in and the speeds are much better than guffgaff

Never ever going back to them, couldn't even download a single snapchat on that network. So bad. I'm really glad I moved to EE with 20Gbs of data ult mins/text for £16.49. I also get speeds up to 120mbps.

As soon as I got a 4G phone I tried the 4G package with GiffGaff (who I've been with for years).

To my dismay (this is in Glasgow city centre) TuneIn Radio/Soundcloud kept cutting out - where before on 3G it was a seamless connection.

Asking on their forums (which has got a bit better but still has its fair share of idiotic replies) didn't glean any useful information, really. Someone actually told me to use the "free wi-fi in the city centre"! What kind of response is that? If you phoned a call centre and Vodafone told you that, you'd quite rightly lose the rag.

I just stay with 3G now. What's the point of paying more for worse data speeds?

Only reason I have a GiffGaff sim is because most of my friends and family have one, and calls to other giffgaff customers are free for 3 Months when you top up.

I'm currently with gif gaff and I haven't had that many issues. Yes sometimes In busy areas the internet is a bit slow but it's bearable. The thing that bugs me is that I don't get coverage in some area down the south coast.

Anyone recommend any other 30 pay as you go plans. I mainly use internet around 6gb per month and I need good coverage.

I heard Virgin is good? But I don't want to switch if it's the same as gift gaff or the prices are going to go up.

Just did a speed test on Giffgaff, got around 11/12mbps download and 5/6mbps upload. It is close to midnight though. I've not really had a problem with them... I don't use internet for streaming much (partially because of data limits) but when I do, it's not that bad. I guess it really depends on where you are.

Having said that, been thinking of switching for a while, just waiting for the right deal. Virgin has been recommend here, but I have a friend with them, and his signal is really, really poor. People are saying other networks are much faster, but I guess I'd have to test them out before switching.

Still, it's good that they're increasing allowances. If better speeds and data allowances didn't tempt me I probably wouldn't bother looking for another deal.

Quit giffgaff in 2014 due to the rapidly increasing prices and absurd throttling and poor performance of unlimited data, prior to which was their only real selling point. No idea how they're even still in business in 2017, let alone producing anything that could ever be considered a deal

They are contracts though, yes 30 day but still contracts

Giffgaff is still the number 1 choice if you don't want or need a contract. You can also change your 'goody bag' each month. I hardly use mobile data as wifi is everywhere and 125 minutes is more than enough for me so find me a better deal for £5 a month?

Think you need to look yourself ,really not that hard

cold from me steer well clear of this 02 cheap brand.if you use to much data they cut you off also if you tether they send you a warning then suspend your data alltogether.

Cold from me. Check uswitch the prices aren't very competitive.

In which case I'm pretty sure you can find a better deal from Talkmobile or Tesco mobile that use the vodafone and O2 networks respectively.

Also are you dead certain that you can;t use Three or EE networks? things change regularly, when did you last check...You can always get a free sim from the networks to test signal.

Wow, talk about screwing your highest spenders over!

No good for me. Only O2 and Vodafone in my area. If you're constrained by network you'll find that this is pretty much the cheapest 30 day rolling contract for around a tenner.

just one example...you can pay less than half this If you don't need as much data though
http://www.hotukdeals.com/deals/virgin-mobile-5000-minutes-unlimited-texts-20gb-data-30-day-contract-15-back-again-2614073

moved from them last year. they kept squeezing data out of plans. moved to EE, more than happy with data, coverage and speeds. cold from an ex customer.

i left giffgaff and moved to plusnet im glad i did speeds on giffgaff are woeful and very poor value for money also can put a cap of £1 on it, wonderful why people are still on giffgaff this offer is little too late and they still far of from beng competitive again

very cold - f***ing freezing deal, true sucks network

I got my daughter a GiffGaff sim few years ago and have been paying for £12 goodybag.

She has been complaining about data speeds but I assumed she was being fussy.

Will need to look into this.

Is there any other "faster" options for a 13 year old that I dont end up with a massive bill?

I pay £20 a month (12 month) with EE for Unlimited calls/texts and 20gb data - the speed difference between them and when I was on GiffGaff is insane. I genuinely thought mobile data was just crap and slow everywhere but turns out it's just that on GG/o2.

not for a moment do I regret changing.

Excellent! I keep running out of 2gb data on the 12 quid a month plan do having 3gb is gonna be perfect.
I'd been thinking of going for a 30 day contract with plusnet as get 4gb data for tenner but never been on contract and have hesitation. I like that freedom of not being tied in and of course no nasty bills.
But my goodbye is due for renewal today so how do I delay it a week haha I've no credit or data

Everyone saying these are slow, but I don't think they are noticeably slow. When I browse the web or watch YouTube seems to load fast enough

We have been with GiffGaff for about 12 months now, don't want to be tied into a contact, thought about PlusNet as we have our Broadband and phone with them but decided against it, I agree that the speed of GiffGaff 4G is SLOW but if all you need is emails and web browsing then it's ok.

Have just done a speed test and my results were


But I have had far better speeds but it has to be later at night :smirk:

not voting because yes it's a better deal but they are way behind other mobile phone providers now, especially in terms of data speed

Just tested my 4G on giffgaff. 1.4mb down .5mb up
Not great is it but then again works for me and my needs so hot from me

I use giffgaff for my mum to keep her on o2 (for signal where she is) but wish they or another provider did a good amount of minutes without the data. she has an android phone but doesn't use data.

she's currently on the 7.50 tariff.

Once upon a time GiffGaff were a breath of fresh air in a world of 18/24mth contracts...nowadays they really are bad value compared to the 30 day rolling sim only contracts out there.

not really sure why anyone stays with GiffGaff now.....

what a good "pay as you go" sim, as I been with giff gaff for a few years now and hate there speeds but only stuck with them as I can't get a good payg sim deal. I don't like the idea of being stuck in contract so payg. I'd be happy with about 500mins unlimited text and about 6GB data, I only pay £12 to giff gaff so anything up to about £15 would be ok

this is great. i have no issues with giff gaff, they do exactly what i need.

For me "it's too little too late", just switched to Virgin

Niffnaff

been with guff gaff for years but have finally given up due to crappy speeds.

GiffGaff used to be great value. I had my kids on it aswell as my self on GiffGaff but we have all left due to it being uncompetitive with the other companies out there regarding pricing and speed.

GiffGaff data speed was woeful the last time I tried it, about 12 months ago. So bad that I have given up on GiffGaff, it was unusuable IMO.

there prices are high compared to other so it's not really a surprise there is it

Giffgaff customer are crying out for better data speeds so while this is good reality is they need to do much more. 4g speeds are less than 2Mb when other companies are giving 15+ on 3G. Tesco mobile part owned by the same company gives their customers 25Mb. Giffgaff simply don't care and have been losing customers all year because of the speeds plus special deals by the likes of plusnet